University Times

Eight faculty members have been named winners of the 2012 Provost’s Advisory Council on Instructional Excellence (ACIE) Innovation in Education awards.

They are:

• Peter Brusilovsky, a faculty member in information science and intelligent systems, School of Information Sciences, for the project “Engaging Students in Online Reading Through Social Progress Visualization.”

This project’s goal is to devise a method to encourage students to complete their required course readings, as well as to enable their professors to know whether the readings have been completed. Brusilovsky’s team will take an alternative approach, based on recent research, that will comprise three steps: tracking a student’s online reading progress; presenting a student with his or her reading progress, and offering an interface to let students compare their progress with the class as a whole and the progress of individual peers.

• Fiona E. Craig, a faculty member in hematopathology in the School of Medicine’s Department of Pathology, for the project “The Virtual Pathology Instructor (V-PIN).”

Craig’s project will develop an interactive pathology teaching tool, V-PIN, to  engage students with real-life clinical scenarios, test comprehension of key concepts, offer individual instruction and provide immediate feedback.

V-PIN builds on advances in computer-based pathology, including the ability to perform virtual microscopic examinations of slide images over the Internet. The tool will be evaluated during a pilot trial, where it will be used to prepare for small-group pathology sessions in a medical student course.

Students either will perform the traditional reading assignment or complete a V-PIN case, and they will be tested both before and after each session.

• Paul W. Leu, a faculty member in the Swanson School of Engineering’s Department of Industrial Engineering, and Mary Besterfield-Sacre, faculty member and Fulton C. Noss Faculty Fellow in industrial engineering, for the project “Learning and Experiencing Engineering Design Processes That Promote Innovative Outcomes.”

Based upon Besterfield-Sacre’s recent research on innovation in engineering design, this project will develop specific activities and tools to build innovative design teams, strengthen critical design activities and enhance innovative outcomes. Among those tools will be team-building and brainstorming activities as well as the creation of team wikis, that is programs that allow users to collaborate in creating content and to promote communication among members.

• Jonathan Pearlman, a faculty member in the Department of Rehabilitation Science and Technology (RST), School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, and associate director for engineering at the Human Engineering Research Laboratories, for the project “Rehabilitation Technology Design for Developing Countries.”

This project will expand to undergraduates a graduate-level series of RST departmental courses that focus on developing assistive devices for people with disabilities.

In addition, the courses will include an international component, where Pitt students will have the opportunity to perform a service-learning project at one of the international sites where RST researchers collaborate.

• Andrew T. Rose, a faculty member in civil engineering technology at Pitt-Johnstown, for the project “Development and Implementation of a Multi-Course Design Project in the Civil Engineering Technology Curriculum Using a Modified Communities of Practice Approach.”

Rose will develop a multicourse design project that incorporates real-world aspects of building analysis and design. The design project will incorporate three required courses and two electives in the junior and senior years of Pitt-Johnstown’s civil engineering technology (CET) curriculum.

The project will employ the communities-of-practice approach, that is grouping students with a shared interest in CET so they can improve their technical and communication skills through frequent interaction.

• Tonya Rutherford-Hemming, a faculty member in the School of Nursing, for the project “Simulation to Promote Auscultation-Related Knowledge and Skills (SPARKS).”

This project is intended to ensure that advanced-practice registered nurses are proficient in auscultation, or the act of listening to sounds made by internal organs, particularly the heart and lungs. A student auscultation manikin will be incorporated into foundational courses for advanced-practice nursing students, allowing them to safely assess and diagnose “real-life” medical diagnoses without actual risk to a patient.

• William R. Schumann, a faculty member in anthropology at Pitt-Bradford, for the project “GPS Mapping and Community Development.”

Schumann’s project involves developing walking-trail user data for mobile devices that would serve public use and educational purposes in Smethport, Pa.

Students in applied anthropology will use readings on anthropological methods and the Appalachian region to understand rural community development strategies in northwestern Pennsylvania. They will travel to Smethport to create a global positioning system map, digitally photograph four trails and compile natural scientific and historic data on Smethport to add to trail maps. Students in the Family and Community Relationships course will be exposed to the principles of curricular development in creating Pennsylvania-ready learning content that is specific to Smethport’s area schools.

The Innovation in Education awards, begun in 2000 by then-Provost James V. Maher, encourage instructional innovation and teaching excellence. ACIE seeks proposals that show promise for introducing innovative approaches to teaching that can be adapted for other courses.